***THIS BLOG CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 5 ROYAL***
Hello Internet!
I hope you all are doing well and stay healthy! I know for me, this week has been very busy. I fully came back last Sunday and have been posting consistently all this week. Now I just have to do it for 50 more weeks. Super easy, barely an inconvenience I say. Truly I’m happy for all the support and love I’ve gotten from all of you this week. It really means a lot! In case you missed it or are new here, let me quickly talk about the pieces I published this past week before I jump into this week’s Weekly Topic which is Persona 5 Royal.
Last Sunday I kicked off 2023 with a Weekly Blog talking about My Themes For 2023. If you are not aware, themes are kind of like resolutions but without being about a set goal. It’s more of a mindset that affects your decisions in order to achieve a goal. I go into it in a lot more detail in the Weekly Blog, but basically this year I want to focus on reading more, being healthier, and writing more. I’m taking what I did last year and trying even harder to make it a reality. Then on Wednesday I published a Poem titled “Imperfections.” I’m starting the year with a bit of a strange one. I don’t like to spell out too much of the meaning behind my poems because I like there to be room for interpretation but my thoughts about this one is that it’s kind of all over the place. It’s talking about art and about life and all the imperfections that make up both. This is one of those poems where I just start writing it and I’m not sure where it’s going to end up. To me it makes it exciting. Lastly, on Friday, I published a Writing Prompt Post titled “Shifter.” It’s been awhile (almost a year) since I wrote a proper Writing Prompt Piece so I kind of eased myself into this one. It’s about a Military Doctor who is studying a shapeshifter that has been captured and imprisoned by the military. The shapeshifter discusses with the doctor about purpose and how the military only saw their potential as a monster and nothing else. It’s pretty short like most of my Writing Prompt Pieces. It’s not quite a short story but it’s definitely a bit of a story and I think this one is pretty good.
Now I want to jump from stuff I published this past week to something I’ve played months ago. That’s right, Persona 5 Royal. For those who might not be aware, Persona 5 is a Japanese Role Playing Game where you are a high school student that has the power to enter another, dream-line world and capture creatures called Personas. You then can use these elementally powered creatures to fight others as you enter mind palaces and change the heart of wrongdoers. It’s kind of like a grown up version of Pokemon where instead of taking on Gym Challenges and learning the power of friendship, you enter the mind of perverted Gym Teachers or Mob Bosses and attack their psyche until they have a mental breakdown and confess to all their crimes. If that doesn’t sell you on the game then I should tell you that you also get to experience everything that comes with being a high schooler in Japan like studying for tests, working a part-time job, owning a talking cat, eating a giant burger at a space-themed mcdonalds, and call a maid service that your homeroom teacher works at. Huh? Interested now? Well let me tell you that way before I knew any of this I was super excited about Persona 5. The Persona series was one that I had never played before but I heard all of these amazing things about. Especially Persona 5. People couldn’t stop saying how good this game was. Then when Joker (the main protagonist of Persona 5) was announced for Super Smash Bros I was sure that the game would come to Nintendo Switch. So I waited and waited and waited. It wasn’t until October 2022 that finally Persona 5 Royal came to the Switch and I picked it up on day one. Also I should say that Persona 5 Royal is basically Persona 5 Deluxe. Basically the same game but with a new character, a few added cutscenes, and a new ending involving that new character. From October to Christmas I played the game whenever I could and I ended up putting in over 140 hours into it. So yeah you can say that I really got my money’s worth there.
So what did I think of the game? Well if the amount of time I put into it or my colorful description of the game didn’t give it away, I absolutely loved this game! I had an absolute blast playing through it. I found the battles fun and engaging and I ended up trying out a ton of the different Personas. It wasn’t until pretty late that I realized (or rediscovered) that you can sacrifice smaller personas to power up my main personas, so when I found that out, it was a game changer. I also really enjoyed the boss fights. Each of the palaces were pretty fun to explore and each boss fight was pretty challenging in its own way. The one that gave me the most trouble was Okumura’s boss fight. This is a timed boss fight where you must battle wave after wave of the Burger CEO’s most loyal minions. It really tested my strategy and how I needed to use each character’s attacks to take out the wave all at once. I looked online and I think the consensus for a lot of people is that Okumura is the toughest bosses to fight because of the time limit and the way you have to coordinate during the battle. The boss fights near the end of the game were really fun too. I mistakenly thought that the final boss was going to be Shido, the up and coming politician who has ties to all the other bosses you have to fight. But silly me, this is a JRPG. Of course a human being can’t be the final boss. You have to kill god! The fight against The God Of Control was so over the top that it worked. I really enjoyed it.
And of course I have to talk about all the other stuff outside of the battles. All the social stuff I really enjoyed. I liked all the personal stories you have with the other characters and I enjoyed the small stuff like playing videogames with my cat or going to the batting cages so I can level up my skills. This game is very long and it has a lot of time where you are just hanging out and talking to your friends or playing pool or trying to romance one of the girls on the team. Throughout the game you can rank up your relationships with many of the major side characters and a few of these lead to romance. I maximized basically all of these skills my first time playing through the game other than Akechi who turned out to be a murderer so I don’t even feel bad and Yusuke which..ok. Let’s talk about Yusuke real quick. This guy has a Fox mask and is voiced by Matthew Mercer in the English version. I should love this guy. But the pretentious, know-it-all art guy really made me not want to hang out with him. Like, I know he gets better when you play through his story, but I’m sorry, Ann wants to go shopping and that sounds way better to me. Oh right, in my playthrough I romanced Ann. What can I say? I’m a huge fan of Ann! Honestly any of the female characters are pretty cute and I wouldn’t be mad if Joker ended up with them. Other than the adult women. I’m pretty sure this game has three options to date an adult woman when you are still a high schooler. It’s weird. Plus one of them is your teacher. I know it’s an anime game and whatever, but I still found it strange. Adult women should not be dating teenage boys. That’s all. Anyway, yeah in my game Joker and Anne ended up together and they are super cute together. Big fan.
The last thing I’ll say is that I did not play the original Persona 5 so I’m not sure exactly how much Persona 5 Royal actually adds, but I really enjoyed the new character Kasumi and her story. The DLC mission or whatever after you kill god is super cool. This whole game plays with the idea of control and authority versus rebellion and personal choice. Some people are trying to use their power to control and manipulate others and it’s the job of the Phantom Thieves to take them down. The final mission with Doctor Maruki trying to rewrite reality in order to make it perfect for everybody is a great way to explore that theme in a different way. Sure Maruki might have been giving people a perfect reality but it still wasn’t real life. Choices have to matter even if those choices lead to bad things or an imperfect world. You can’t just run away from your trauma by just forgetting and becoming someone else. I’m glad Kasumi, who is really Sumire, finds inner peace alongside all of the other Phantom Thieves.
Honestly I could go on and on about Persona 5 Royal. But I don’t want to keep you all here for 140 hours. I know that I’ve spoiled a lot of things in this blog, but honestly you should go play this game if you have a chance. Again, it’s a long game and the tutorial section at the beginning of the game is pretty lengthy, but it’s definitely worth it. Once you really get into it, you will absolutely fall in love with these characters and enjoy each conversation you get to have with them. This game was so much fun that I want to try out Persona 4 Golden. I’ve heard that that game is really fun as well. And who knows, maybe I’ll play it and write a Weekly BLog about it. Until then, go out there and play some darts and steal some hearts!
Thank you so much for reading that Weekly Blog all about Persona 5 Royal and my thoughts on the game. I hope you enjoyed reading through it. Like I said I did spoil quite a bit so I really hope you played the game before reading this or don’t really care about spoilers. If you liked this Weekly Blog, I hope that you will give it a Like. This is a good way of letting me know what content you enjoyed and what you want to see more of. I occasionally talk about the video games I’ve played, so if you want to see more of that let me know. Also if you’ve played Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal, let me know down in the comments what you thought of the game. Did you enjoy it? Love it? Hate it? I want to hear all about your experience with the game. Additionally, who did you choose to romance? Did you pick Ann like me or maybe you went for a spicier route where you romance everyone. Let me know how that went for you. Last but not least, if you really enjoyed this Weekly Blog and want to see more of the stuff I write, please Follow me here on WordPress. I’m building a community of positivity and creativity here on the internet and I want you to be a part of that. I’m getting closer and closer to 900 Followers and I can only achieve that if you Follow me here. No pressure but I’d really appreciate it. All of the love and support I get from my readers really means a ton to me so thank you for all of it! It really makes my day/week/month/year.
Thank you again and I hope you have a wonderful week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to Nintendo’s Webpage for Persona 5 Royal
https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/persona-5-royal-switch/
Allen The Writer 